Plymouth Weekend 14th to 15th June
We chartered Red Alert for the weekend, she is an Offshore 125 operated by Danny Daniels. We first dived from her when Danny operated out of Fort Bovisand and had many fabulous, fun weekends and weeks diving from there. Unfortunately the Fort is being turned into posh flats etc and so Danny now operates from Lockyers Quay and Mountbatten.
Most of us made it down in reasonable time on the Friday and met up for food and a few beers at the Cookhouse pub except for Alan who was warding off a cold. Unfortunately, he couldn’t dive on Saturday but made it on Sunday.
Ropes off from the quay was set at 07:15. The morning was bright and dry but there was a slight concern over the strength of the SW wind. Many of us loaded at Lockyers and hitched a ride over to Mountbatten where we were met by the final divers. After loading the rest of the kit we set off to poke our noses out of the breakwater.
The plan for the morning was to dive the Persier and then carry on steaming out to HMS Untiring, depending on sea state. The sea was a little lumpy on the way out but not as bad as we thought it might be and so we cracked on to the Persier where the first group of divers were going to make their first dive. Reports were of a cracking 10m viz and a balmy 14 degrees at depth.
Once all divers were recovered we hauled in the shot and made the decision to carry on to the Untiring, we needed to steam on a little as we had to make it in time for the slack tide at 11:00hrs. After finding the wreck Mandy was tasked with launching the shot which was placed perfectly mid ships on the seabed slap bang next to the hull, a lucky shot!!
Three divers on this one, Tom, Steve and Pete. The top of the sub is 45m and the hull is straight and level on the seabed. With the shot placed by the conning tower (half of which has now fallen onto the seabed) Steve and I turned left and had a lovely straight swim all the way to the bow where the torpedo tubes are now exposed at the top.
We did the usual stop off the end of the bow and could sea top to bottom and probably around 10m down the length of the hull. We then started our swim back passing Pete along the way. A quick stop at the shot to inflate the lift bag and the onto the stern where both prop and rudder are still intact. A quick swim around the stern, back to the shot and a 35 minute to surface penalty. It was a fantastic dive and I think we would all do it again in a heartbeat. Viz was 6m to 10m and a not too bad 12 degrees at depth.
Unfortunately, as so often happens, the sea had kicked up a fair bit whilst we were down and so it was up with the shot and steam back to the shelter of Cawsand Bay as quickly as possible.
After pasties and tea we all agreed to stick our noses out a little way and have a drift dive with the incoming tide which would bring us back in past Cawsand Bay and would keep us sheltered making a sensible end to the day. Lots of Cephalopod activity around the south coast at the moment and we had fun with the Cuttlefish and Octopi.
After the dive another round of tea and a plate of doughnuts finished the day off nicely, it was a lovely steam back to Mountbatten where we dropped off cylinders and the three Mountbattenites.We met up at the Kathmandu Indian restaurant for beers and a curry, (after having to drag Bill out of the pub where a live band was setting up)!
Ropes off Sunday was a very reasonable 08:30 from the quay and after making the stop at Mounbatten we decided to head out to The Rosehill which sits at 30m on a silty bed and is not dived nearly as much as the popular wrecks. The weather was warm, dry and less wind than the day before much to our relief!
Mandy on shot duty again managed to plant it right next to the two boilers and we had a very pleasant dive in around 6m of visibility. The whole wreck is very interesting but the boilers are fabulous. Again, another one I wouldn’t hesitate to dive again. All of the usual sea life with some big arsed Congers lurking in the bowels of the wreck and lots of little baby ones in the boilers.
It is always fun to see the Tompot Blennys around and there are some very nice Compass Jellies mid water. 6m to 8m viz and 13 degrees at depth.
We were treated to a lunchtime show from a large pod of young Common Dolphins who were having a whale of a time playing alongside the boat whilst waiting for their elders and betters to come back from hunting offshore, although I don’t think they were having as much fun as Mandy who was at the helm trying to follow them!
Once lunch was over we headed to the good old James Eagan Layne. The Layne is a wreck that just keeps on giving and whilst it has deteriorated in the last few years I didn’t think it was any worse this year than last year.
Steve and I had a fantastic dive exploring parts of the hull that have recently become more accessible and then finishing with a gentle bimble right along the deck, up to and off the front of the bow. 6m to 8m viz and 13 degrees at depth.
Tea and scones (Devon style) finished the day off nicely and we headed back home.
I hope a fun weekend was had by all. Hopefully we will have photos when this goes up on the web site.
The divers on this tip were:
Tom Bryer
Steve Marchant
Peter Eastland
Paul Cole
Bill King
Jude Rodwell
Dragan
Mark Lewis
Alan Williams
Bee Nuttall (Guest diver)
Mandy Bryer was boat bitch (Surely ace shot deployer )for the weekend joined by Jeff (Bee’s other half).